Just for kicks today, I went through my current demo tracks:
:text-link:
on my main HT system. I've said it before, I think careful listening to speakers can teach something about headphones, and vise-versa. I'm sharing my musings on this, the thoughts that were going through my head as I listened. Nothing scientific here.
In my particular system, the mids seem to be a bit more pronounced in the speakers compared to my Denon D5000. A little less bass overall, though the bass goes lower (more on that in a bit). I think my system with the "Flint MTMs" and Soundhound active crossover is the best I've heard in terms of imaging; the soundstage left/right and resolution of different instruments is really good - IMHO. However, the depth my speakers achieve (in stereo mode, I mean, not talking about surround) is not as great as some; in particular, Zing's. I LOVE the depth he has achieved. May largely be a factor of his speaker placement, which is much further into the room than I'm able to do in my den. I don't know if that's the only factor, though.
Anyway, it was fun to listen to this stuff on the speakers, though it takes some mental adjustment at first. When you've been concentrating on headphones for a long time, speakers just sound... narrow.
At first. Of course, the first time I seriously listened to headphones, I had the opposite effect "AAAAACK the sounds are all RIGHT IN MY HEAD" and I had a major headache within a half an hour. Of course, that may be because I was listening to AKG K701s at the time. :eusa-whistle:
But yeah, of course the big obvious different between headphones and speakers is the apparent placement of your body within the sounds you're heading. Speakers (again, with stereo only) necessarily present a "stage view" because they're in front of you. Headphones give you an "in the middle of the instruments" view. Which one prefers is highly subjective, and in my opinion and experience, depends a lot on the recording and even the style of music.
For example, I MUCH prefer headphones for choral music (e.g. my Rachmaninoff Vespers track). I get the feel that I'm right in front of the choir, like in the conductor's position, rather than in an audience set back from the stage. I love that. Maybe in part because of my history of singing in choirs (college, church), so I like the feel of being right there in it. Or with solo piano; I'm so used to playing myself and thus being right there where the sound is originating, that I prefer a presentation that puts me right up close.
On the other hand, I kinda prefer feeling like I'm further back with an orchestra. It's almost a little confusing to be right in the middle of the stage with headphones, as there's just so much going on all over the place (e.g. the Stravinsky tracks). It feels more natural to me to be set back in the audience - again probably because I don't play in orchestras (except once) and am more used to being an audience member.
Similarly, rock music from speakers feels a lot more like being at a concert, since most of us don't get the privilege of being right up on stage. (Of course, with PA systems, that's blurred a bit.)
The other difference is that with headphones, everything sounds BIG. If you're listening to (acoustic) guitar music, it sounds like your head is right near the guitar because that's where the mic is. With speakers, there's a more realistic sense of scale of an instrument. For example, the string bass (Bromberg) or the jazz ensemble (Shirley horn) present a size that's more realistic - like the bass or the drum set is really right there a few feet in front of you, as if you were present at an intimate concert venue. IMHO, this creates in my head the sense that I'm really there with the instrumentalists, which adds to the experience of the music - which is distinct from issues of frequency response, imaging, accuracy, etc. And that experience is fun!
And then there's stuff that headphones just can't do. I'm not sure any headphone in the universe can really get that bottom octave or two of a pipe organ - like in the 5-15Hz range, where you (or at least I) begin to feel it more as a vibration than a sound. Even with my lowly SVS 10NSD, that low stuff is there, while it's completely missing from the headphones. Maybe there are other headphones that do this better, I don't know. We'll see... but I have my doubts. And as others have said, the whole-body tactile sense from a subwoofer is part of the experience.
Anyway, just my thoughts. Nothing really new here, or anything you all haven't thought of before. I guess my main point is that headphones and speakers are different in more ways than simply frequency response, that they're fundamentally different physical systems, and we experience them in very different ways.
:text-link:
on my main HT system. I've said it before, I think careful listening to speakers can teach something about headphones, and vise-versa. I'm sharing my musings on this, the thoughts that were going through my head as I listened. Nothing scientific here.
In my particular system, the mids seem to be a bit more pronounced in the speakers compared to my Denon D5000. A little less bass overall, though the bass goes lower (more on that in a bit). I think my system with the "Flint MTMs" and Soundhound active crossover is the best I've heard in terms of imaging; the soundstage left/right and resolution of different instruments is really good - IMHO. However, the depth my speakers achieve (in stereo mode, I mean, not talking about surround) is not as great as some; in particular, Zing's. I LOVE the depth he has achieved. May largely be a factor of his speaker placement, which is much further into the room than I'm able to do in my den. I don't know if that's the only factor, though.
Anyway, it was fun to listen to this stuff on the speakers, though it takes some mental adjustment at first. When you've been concentrating on headphones for a long time, speakers just sound... narrow.
At first. Of course, the first time I seriously listened to headphones, I had the opposite effect "AAAAACK the sounds are all RIGHT IN MY HEAD" and I had a major headache within a half an hour. Of course, that may be because I was listening to AKG K701s at the time. :eusa-whistle: But yeah, of course the big obvious different between headphones and speakers is the apparent placement of your body within the sounds you're heading. Speakers (again, with stereo only) necessarily present a "stage view" because they're in front of you. Headphones give you an "in the middle of the instruments" view. Which one prefers is highly subjective, and in my opinion and experience, depends a lot on the recording and even the style of music.
For example, I MUCH prefer headphones for choral music (e.g. my Rachmaninoff Vespers track). I get the feel that I'm right in front of the choir, like in the conductor's position, rather than in an audience set back from the stage. I love that. Maybe in part because of my history of singing in choirs (college, church), so I like the feel of being right there in it. Or with solo piano; I'm so used to playing myself and thus being right there where the sound is originating, that I prefer a presentation that puts me right up close.
On the other hand, I kinda prefer feeling like I'm further back with an orchestra. It's almost a little confusing to be right in the middle of the stage with headphones, as there's just so much going on all over the place (e.g. the Stravinsky tracks). It feels more natural to me to be set back in the audience - again probably because I don't play in orchestras (except once) and am more used to being an audience member.
Similarly, rock music from speakers feels a lot more like being at a concert, since most of us don't get the privilege of being right up on stage. (Of course, with PA systems, that's blurred a bit.)
The other difference is that with headphones, everything sounds BIG. If you're listening to (acoustic) guitar music, it sounds like your head is right near the guitar because that's where the mic is. With speakers, there's a more realistic sense of scale of an instrument. For example, the string bass (Bromberg) or the jazz ensemble (Shirley horn) present a size that's more realistic - like the bass or the drum set is really right there a few feet in front of you, as if you were present at an intimate concert venue. IMHO, this creates in my head the sense that I'm really there with the instrumentalists, which adds to the experience of the music - which is distinct from issues of frequency response, imaging, accuracy, etc. And that experience is fun!
And then there's stuff that headphones just can't do. I'm not sure any headphone in the universe can really get that bottom octave or two of a pipe organ - like in the 5-15Hz range, where you (or at least I) begin to feel it more as a vibration than a sound. Even with my lowly SVS 10NSD, that low stuff is there, while it's completely missing from the headphones. Maybe there are other headphones that do this better, I don't know. We'll see... but I have my doubts. And as others have said, the whole-body tactile sense from a subwoofer is part of the experience.
Anyway, just my thoughts. Nothing really new here, or anything you all haven't thought of before. I guess my main point is that headphones and speakers are different in more ways than simply frequency response, that they're fundamentally different physical systems, and we experience them in very different ways.
